Bridge of Legends- The Complete Series

by Sarah K. L. Wilson

  “I’ll let you know when I have need of you,” she said eventually, wetting her lips in a way that made him want to run in the opposite direction. “You should get some sleep. The inn will have breakfast wafers in late morning to break your fast.”

  Tamerlan’s mouth watered at the suggestion of food. He was so hungry he could eat just about anything. The tiny honey wafers the city would eat today to break their fast wouldn’t be nearly enough, but he’d take them and be grateful. Of course, right now, he’d just be happy to get out of Spellspinner’s Cures with his skin still attached.

  “Sleep well,” Allegra said with a smirk.

  He nodded quickly and hurried away from her, through the squeaking door. He was faster than those mice as he scurried up the stairs to the door of the suite and slipped inside. Marielle’s door was ajar, and Etienne’s was closed. Tamerlan crept to his door and knocked softly, hoping not to disturb anyone else. A familiar smell wafted from under the closed door, but Etienne only opened it a crack, just wide enough to see a sliver of his face.

  “Wasn’t saving your life enough, Alchemist? Now you want to disturb my sleep as well?” he asked.

  “I want to talk about the amulet,” Tamerlan whispered. “We need to use it right away.”

  Etienne looked around dramatically before asking dryly. “Is the dragon attacking the city?”

  “No,” Tamerlan said, irritation setting his teeth on edge.

  “Then maybe it can wait an hour for me to take a quick nap. Go away and let me sleep.”

  “Do you promise that we can make a plan to destroy this dragon after you sleep?”

  His tone was severe. “When next we speak, we’ll talk all about it. I promise.”

  He closed his door and the sound of the deadbolt was clear in the silence of the inn. Either Tamerlan could wait, or he could break down the door. He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck.

  Why was Marielle’s door open? Had she left? He snuck across the suite and peeked inside. She lay sleeping, her hand stretched out as if it had held something, though there was nothing there. He closed her door carefully and snuck to his own room, stripping off his wet clothing and taking the time to hang them up before falling into the bed. He fell asleep the moment his eyes shut.

  27: Empty Hands and Empty Promises

  Marielle

  Marielle woke with a start. A bang reverberated through her room as someone opened her door so quickly that it bounced off the wall. A half-naked Tamerlan stood in the doorway, breeches tugged on but the laces not tied, no boots or shirt or anything else on.

  She sat up, leaping to her feet. She’d fallen asleep fully clothed, her collarbone still stinging from her fresh tattoo of Xin and the paper he’d given her – the illuminated page from an ancient text – clutched in her hand. It was gone now.

  Her gaze raked across the bed. Had Anglarok come in here and snatched it? She’d been debating with herself last night when she fell asleep. She hadn’t decided whether she should tell him that a clue to the Bridge of Legends had been right there in her hands. After all, Tamerlan had entrusted it to her.

  “He’s gone,” Tamerlan said spitting a violent curse. His light-colored hair was darkened by water and the ripples of his muscles – while dry – were pebbled with gooseflesh in the cool of the morning.

  Marielle rubbed her eyes, swallowing awkwardly. She’d seen her share of people dressing and undressing in the Watch Officers barracks, but they rarely burst into her room an hour after dawn. Light poured in through the window behind her and a tiny tinkling began the hourly bells as they sounded around the city.

  Could he mean Anglarok? Had she lost her chance to make this decision at all?

  She waited as the bells finished ringing, brushing off her own shirt and breeches and running a hand through her tangled hair. At least he didn’t know that the page was gone, too.

  “Who is gone?” she asked with careful composure as the last peal of the bells died off.

  “The Lord Mythos. Last night we found Abelmeyer’s Eye.” His eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep and he smelled of desperation – and worse, of the siren-sweet scent of magic that he’d worn when first she met him.

  “You’ve been around magic,” she said sternly. “What have you done?”

  He was so beautiful – and so terrible – like a devil sent to the world to tempt and seduce her and then dance on her tattered soul. She pushed back the golden scent of attraction, refusing to give into it. He wouldn’t be her undoing no matter how often he showed up half-naked and beautiful in her bedroom.

  “I’m telling you what we did!” Tension filled his voice. “Me, and Jhinn, and Etienne stole the Eye from Deathless Pirate’s treasure trove. Etienne claimed he needed to sleep for an hour, and locked his door, but now he’s gone.”

  There was another scent now that he said that – a faint smell.

  “Aniseed?” she said aloud as she tried to figure it out. “And something else. Something familiar ... wait! There was aniseed on the page you gave me.”

  Tamerlan’s gaze flitted around the room and then locked onto hers.

  “Did you fall asleep reading it?”

  Marielle looked at her bed and swallowed. She’d slept on top of the blankets. They were hardly even rumpled. But there was no page there. Someone had certainly taken it. If not Anglarok, then Etienne.

  “Yes,” she said. She scrambled onto the bed looking over the side. No page. It was gone.

  “Come on,” Tamerlan said, purpose filling his scent and swirling around Marielle, too, like a ribbon drawing her after him.

  He was across to Etienne’s door in a heartbeat, shoving against it. It was locked.

  “Stand back!” He stepped back a few paces.

  “You don’t need to – ” Marielle began but Tamerlan ran at the door, shoulder first. He crashed into it and with a loud splintering crack, the door burst open.

  The next door in the suite opened immediately and Anglarok stuck his head out, piercing her with a look.

  “Are we under attack?” he asked sharply.

  “No,” she said, her mouth dry at his violent look.

  “Then keep silent and do not disturb us. I’ve only just soothed the Ki’squall to sleep.” He retreated back into the room and shut the door quickly and silently.

  Marielle breathed a sigh of relief and followed Tamerlan into Etienne’s room. She could have told him that the room was empty. She hadn’t smelled Etienne behind the door. What she did smell, was the exact same scent of haunting spices that she’d smelled in Tamerlan’s room back in Jingen. She spun, looking at him as he stood alert in the doorway, his eyes running over the room.

  She was seeing the same things he was. An open window. An untouched bed. The remains of a fire in the grate. Herbs scattered across the floor.

  “It’s the magic you were meddling with back in Jingen, isn’t it?” Marielle asked, the realization bursting out of her before she thought about whether it was a good idea.

  “I .. I ..” he was stuttering, but he wasn’t looking at her. His hands were running through his hair while he studied the room like he was reading his own death warrant. His mouth was open as if the answer were about to fall from it, but instead, all that poured from his parted lips were swirls of guilt mixed with fear. “I have to go after him.”

  Really? Still no answers? He was still going to leave her in the dark? Ignoring the splintered door, she grabbed his arm and dragged him to where the herbs were scattered on the ground. A tiny trail of smoke wove up from the ashes on the grate to the chimney above.

  “Do you know what this is?” she asked him quietly. “Do you know what he did with this?”

  “Yes,” the words sounded like a confession, like she’d ripped them from his lips. She was going to get answers. Had he been in some kind of altered state when he rescued her? Was that it? Was it maybe not magic at all?

  But it smelled like magic.

  She steered him toward the bed and pushed him down int
o it so he was sitting on the edge and she could look him in the eyes. He was so tall. It was hard to be firm and intimidating when dealing with a man who was a head taller than she was.

  “Are you able to perform magic like Etienne can sometimes?” she didn’t want to mention the shell in her pocket or how she had access to magic now, too – even if she didn’t really know how to use it.

  “No,” he breathed. His light-colored eyes were locked on hers, his expression so vulnerable as his scent deepened. The guilt in it – the aching anxiety of it – was growing in color and intensity with every heartbeat.

  “But I smell it on you, just like I smelled it then.” It was everywhere in this room – turquoise with golden sparkles. Vanilla and lilac licking at the edge of every thought like flames on the edge of a page. She wanted more of it. She wanted as much of it as she could get.

  “I have a ... recipe ... to tap into things that go beyond what I can do,” he said. “Did you read the page?”

  She hadn’t read it, though her eyes had brushed that one phrase, ‘Bridge of Legends.’ It stood out to her like a beacon in the night. After all, it was what Liandari was searching for. A way to bring back the Legends. She didn’t want to admit how much she knew to Tamerlan. She needed to keep this to herself until she knew what the best thing to do with the information was. It felt like violating his trust not to share what she knew – but how far could she trust him?

  She shook her head.

  “Etienne has used it,” he said and the look on his face was haunted. “And it’s ... it’s terribly dangerous.”

  “How dangerous?” she said, trying to stay calm. But the things Tamerlan had done in Jingen had been – awful. Horrific. Earth-shattering. They’d certainly destroyed everything she knew.

  “Dangerous enough that the Butcher of the Temple District might seem tame compared to what could happen next. We need to find him, and we need to stop him before he destroys everything around him – like I did,” Tamerlan said, fists clenched. He stood up suddenly and she had to step back.

  “Maybe he won’t,” Marielle suggested. “The only thing Etienne has ever loved is his city. Maybe he just wants it back.”

  “Would he do anything for that, Marielle?” Tamerlan asked leaning in. She was uncomfortably aware of his strength and height as he loomed over her. He could snap her like a twig. Just like he’d snapped those poor partiers in the Temple District.

  She shivered and then shrugged her answer.

  “Would he destroy other cities? Other lives?” he pressed.

  “He’s a good man under everything,” she said. But she wasn’t certain. After all, Tamerlan seemed like a good man, too – sometimes. And the things he had done had stained him forever. “Maybe he can control it.”

  “It can’t be controlled,” Tamerlan said quietly. “It can only be contained.”

  He grabbed her wrists in his hands, but it didn’t feel like he was trying to contain her. The look in his eyes was pleading and the spike in his emotions was a bright orange pulse of desperation.

  “Please, Marielle.” His eyes were wide and pleading. “Please help me hunt him down. Please help me stop him from making the same mistakes I did.”

  “How?” she asked. But, of course, she couldn’t go with him. She needed to be here to help Anglarok and Liandari.

  “Be my bloodhound. Follow his scent. I’ll do whatever I have to do to keep us on his trail.”

  “He might not be far,” Marielle said. Tamerlan was making it sound like they’d have to follow him for days over mountains and plains. Meanwhile, he might just be next door talking to Allegra.

  There was something beautiful about Tamerlan’s intensity. All his features went sharper as he spoke.

  “I need you, Marielle. I need your help,” His voice dropped to almost a whisper. “Please.”

  She swallowed, pulling her hands away. “Put some clothes on. You can’t go chasing him while you’re half- naked.”

  Tamerlan looked down, his face darkening as if he hadn’t realized how little he was wearing.

  She really shouldn’t go. She still thought he was dangerous. She still owed more to the Harbingers. And yet – she could have prevented the massacre in the Temple District if she hadn’t let Tamerlan go free that night. She could have prevented the fall of Jingen. She could have prevented everything if she’d just followed her own moral code instead of being persuaded to give him a chance.

  Now, she was being asked again if she would try to stop disaster. She was being given a second chance. She didn’t dare pass it up.

  “Gather your things and meet me below in ten minutes,” she said. “And be quiet. Liandari is hurt and we are not to wake her.”

  His excited expression was worrying, but the hungry scent flickering in the middle of his desperation was even worse. She was going to regret this.

  28: Bloodhound

  Tamerlan

  Tamerlan had been right about Etienne. He was not next door. He was not in the Spice District. Likely, he wasn’t even in the city. But the route he’d taken was – unconventional.

  Tamerlan had no sooner opened the door to the streets – still tightening his belt-pouch straps, slinging his jute bag over his shoulder, and hefting a small satchel Marielle had shoved at him – when she broke past him, nose forward, expression crisp and alert like the bloodhound he’d called her. She sprung from the steps of the inn, rushing into the crowd. Scarf swirling in the wind behind her.

  “Wait!” he called, grabbing her arm.

  She whirled, expression awash with irritation.

  “I need to tell Jhinn where we are. He’s waiting,” Tamerlan said quickly. Despite her small size the intensity of her gaze made him step back.

  “Hurry!” she barked, spinning again and stepping almost subconsciously forward.

  He ran to where Jhinn had dropped them off along the canal. Hopefully, he was still there. If they were going to track Etienne, they were going to need a gondola.

  “Jhinn!” he called before he’d even reached the canal. “Jhinn!”

  He reached the railing, leaning down to see him there, standing in his gondola, craning his neck up to see Tamerlan. Tamerlan ducked under the rail and dropped down over the side of the wall and into the boat.

  “You’re in a hurry. You look almost as crazy as Etienne did,” Jhinn commented with a yawn.

  “You saw him? You saw Etienne?” Tamerlan gasped.

  “You didn’t tell me you were spreading those spirits around,” he said.

  And just like that, the Legends in Tamerlan’s mind woke up again.

  Dragon. Dragon. Dragon. Ram the Hunter.

  He stole your recipe! Now you’ve got some competition, pretty man! Lila Cherrylocks.

  We will find him and bring him to justice. No nobles for us! Byron Bronzebow.

  The cruel cackling of Lady Chaos rang out behind them all and then a new voice stuttered to life.

  There’s no treasure in this burned out hulk. Try north. Raiding inland cities can be fun if you know how they’re fortified. Deathless Pirate.

  Now that he’d called a new Legend, he was stuck with him.

  “Etienne had a spirit with him?” Tamerlan asked.

  “He was possessed by one just like you. If you think I’m gonna smoke that stuff, you can think again. I kept your stash, and I rolled more for you, and I lied to Etienne and told him I knew nothing about any of that, and told him to hire someone else to take him upriver, but I’m not calling any spirits myself. That’s your job.”

  Tamerlan’s heart was in his throat as he asked, “What spirit did you see with him?”

  “Possessing him, you mean? Grandfather Timeless. And trust me, he’s not a nice grandfather. A cruel old man is more accurate.”

  Dragon’s spit in a cup! He’d been taken over by Grandfather Timeless? But how long could that last? One smoking would only last a few hours.

  “He had herbs with him,” Jhinn said. “I don’t know if they’ll be enough, b
ut they were stuffed into a satchel and I could see the edges of some of the leaves sticking out.”

  “Can you follow us through the city? I’m tracking where he went with Marielle, but his path might not go along the canals.”

  “Shouldn’t we just go to the river? That’s the way out of the city.”

  “But on which side? I don’t know where he’s headed. But I would guess it’s somewhere out of town.”

  “I would guess it’s wherever the Grandfather wants to take him.”

  Tamerlan nodded briskly. He needed to get back to Marielle before she tore through the city without him.

  “Here,” Jhinn said, grabbing his bags and tossing them into the boat and then shoving a small whistle into his hand. “Blow this every few minutes and I’ll hear it and stay close in the canals.”

  Tamerlan grinned. “You’re a good friend, Jhinn.”

  “Don’t tell anyone. I have a reputation to uphold!”

  Tamerlan blew the whistle, and then, with a laugh, he hopped onto the lip of the canal and ran to the nearest staircase and back up into the street.

  Where was Marielle? Not where he’d left her, and no surprise there.

  He blew the whistle when he reached the point where he’d asked her to stay and then he ran on, glancing up each alley and side street until he finally found her hopping up and down on her toes at a crossroads.

  “Come on!” she said, grabbing his arm the second she saw him and surging through the growing crowd.

  “Best honey wafers! Break your fast this fine Dawnspell!” one vendor was crying as they passed his red cart, their feet flying across the cobbles.

  “He went this way,” Marielle said, weaving between a man pushing a barrow of lumber and a woman wheeling a cart of honey in jars.

  “Watch it!” the man with the timber said. “We need this to rebuild my shop! Dragon take you if I spill the load!”

  “As if timber is more important than honey on Dawnspell!” the woman argued, her red face growing redder. “There is no Xin without the holidays. No shop at all without customers and the ceremonies keep us from the judgment of the Legends!”